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Tuesday, August 19, 2014

'Alien: Sea Of Sorrows' Book Review

For fans of the world Ridley Scott created in 1979 with
Alien, Prometheus left many wanting (I
still think it was pretty sweet, flawed certainly, but better than many give it
credit for), and Prometheus 2, however that works out, is still
a ways off. Later this year we’ll get the video game Alien:
Isolation, which looks to capture the tense, claustrophobic, isolated
feel of the film, but those among us who aren’t into such distractions are our
of luck. While it doesn’t fill this void exactly, James A. Moore’s new official
tie-in novel Alien: Sea of Sorrows does a solid job of
delivering the thrills you crave.

More than anything, Sea of Sorrows aims
to reveal some of the secrets and background information about the Alien
universe. This includes the ubiquitous Weyland-Yutani Corporation, who is more
concerned with profits and their public image than any kind of safety or
morality. And it also digs into sinister Xenomorphs as well, delivering new
details about them as well. This is a double-edged sword, and provides some
cool additions to the canon, but on the other side, there a stretches in the
logic and connections the narrative seeks to draw that can be difficult to look
past.

Though it takes a bit to start and get to the point, what
Sea of Sorrows does best is keep the pace quick, and pile on
the tension. Given the set up, which involves a large crew of mercenaries who
run afoul of a large group of armor plated alien killing machines, and the
emphasis on action, this story is, truthfully, more in line with James
Cameron’s 1986 Aliens than Scott’s original. That’s not a
bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, the sequel is also an incredible
movie, but there is a difference in tone and the overall approach.

Alan Decker is an engineer working on the planet called New
Galveston. Hardworking, earnest, and fair, he’s there to keep the colonists
safe, but when a toxic stretch of sand, nicknamed the Sea of Sorrows, begins to
spread, he has to get to the bottom of it. Forced to join a team of mercs, he
is sent to investigate an abandoned mine that holds the alien creatures
Weyland-Yutani has been hunting for centuries, and is tasked with bringing one
back alive. As you probably know, that’s way easier to say than to do.

The plot mechanics are largely incidental, but here’s where
things start to get a bit specious. Decker is apparently a low-level empath,
and has been since childhood, and he has a special psychic connection with the
Xenomorphs. This means that, before things even get started, he’s having
nightmares where he’s in their heads and is privy to their “thoughts.”

Through this avenue, Moore attempts to deliver a broader
understanding of the creatures and what they’re all about. You understand the
impulse, but showing things from their point of view, experiencing their
consciousness, and showing what motivates them, makes them that much less terrifying.
A huge part of the horror is that they are unknown, hidden, secret. They lurk
in the shadows, have no feelings, and only want to kill you or put one of their
babies inside of you so the little bastard can rip out of your chest. We don’t
want to know how they feel or what they think.

Fortunately for Sea of Sorrows, the
prominence of this fades over time, and by the time you get to the main body of
the story, Decker’s ability is little more than a locator beacon so he knows
where the next attack is going to come from. And so he knows just how much they
want to kill him, specifically him, which is another thing that may give you
pause.

See, Decker’s not just some random guy working on some
random planet. Oh no, they shoehorn him into the Alien
universe but good. Early on (this isn’t a spoiler since it’s on the back cover
of the paperback), he learns that he has a couple of distant, long-dead
ancestors named Ellen and Amanda Ripley. Now you probably remember Ellen,
played by Sigourney Weaver, as one of the premiere badasses in cinema history.
Amanda is her daughter, who is first mentioned in the director’s cut of
Cameron’s film, and is the protagonist of Isolation. Apparently
Ellen made quite an impression on the aliens, because they remember her, like
on a genetic, hereditary, collective level, and they’re after Decker because he’s
descendent of “the Destroyer” and they want a little revenge.

That’s a pretty big pill to swallow. It’s also unnecessary.
There’s no reason that Decker needs to be related to Ripley other than to
provide an explicit link to the expanded universe, and give the creatures a
reason, tenuous as it is, to be pissed off at the protagonist. But between the
Xenomorphs and Weyland-Yutani, that connection is already well established, and
again, you don’t particularly care that the aliens have a personal vendetta
going on.

Still, despite a couple of huge speed bumps, Alien:
Sea of Sorrow is fun, page-turning read, especially for those of you
who want to know more about this universe. There’s nothing earth shattering,
but you learn some more about the SOP of Weyland-Yutani, and this basically
broadens the scope just a bit, though enough to be of some small interest.
There’s no much in the way of subtlety or subtext, but it’s fast-paced and the characters
are better than you might expect. There are 30 plus mercenaries, and a decent
number of them are given a moment to shine, to show that they have their own
stories and that they’re more than simple stock military ass-kicker types.